As One Drives Over the Cuckoo's Nest (and a Few City Rooftops)
by Perydot
Summary: Hatchin thinks about her journey with Michiko, through various points (or episodes) in time.


_She's just staring at me, mouth hanging open... not ladylike at all._

It wasn't like she was crazy or something. She knew very well that this whole… whatever the hell this was, was just some crazy chick's journey for love. Hatchin thought from the very second she saw her – long hair flowing the wind, broken glass and dinner plates flying all around her, the stifling hot air and gassy smell of her motorcycle choking them all – that Michiko Malandro was just as crazy as her foster family was cruel, which was to say, _very_ crazy.

Sure, she did all the sweet talking of "I'm dragging your little ass along so you can see your father" and "I'll only take care of you if you're really that guy's kid". Sure, she made sure that nothing bad happened to her… after they already did. She probably should've corrected that to say, "I'm gonna make sure nothing bad happens to you after you get taken up in some hot air balloon and get sold off by some carnival assholes." _That_ was a more accurate statement… even if that whole incident was her fault because she was incredibly headstrong. She never would admit that out loud, though! Michiko would turn the whole thing in a big laughing reason for why she should do everything she says.

Michiko sure did the talk and walk in those heels that should've broken her ankle by now, but deep down she didn't know what she was doing. She knew that, Atsuko knew it, and even that weird hair guy knew it. She tried telling her, "Just let him go! If he didn't care about you or me back then, he's not going to now!"

But of course, Michiko went right back at her. "What do _you_ know, huh? Have _you_ met 'em? Anyway… Hiroshi's not that kind of guy. You'll know it when you meet him." Of course, they didn't know when or _if_ they'd meet him. She was sure they never would, and they would be on the hunt for the rest of their lives. (Those would be _short_ lives if they kept running into that Satoshi guy and the police.)

It wasn't until she saw Michiko lying on that bed in Santo Paraiso that she realized what this whole thing was to her. Yes, it was some crazy, stupid journey for love, but also for a past she hadn't and couldn't let go, and… sure, on some level, for her, too.

When everything came crushing down her – the reason of it all falling to bits, the reality that he probably doesn't even think about her anymore, that this was all for naught – she had to do something. Even if that meant teaming up with Jumbo and breaking into some douchey telenovela star's apartment, that's what she was going to do. Michiko had done so much for her, even if she didn't want her to or she didn't like it. This was the least she could for her.

When they made it to Goinia, that's when everything just felt… _done_. Michiko was oddly okay with letting her go and being taken in by the police even though she spent all this time running away from them. It seemed like she had finally lost her fight. And that's why she was fighting and clawing and scratching at those police officers so much. This was the end of their journey, but it wasn't going to end like _that_.

They are going to find Hiroshi because she saw him with her very eyes: the pale skin and hair, eyes with laugh lines and the lost fire in them – the same features she has herself. She saw him, knew where he was, and where he was going. They _will_ find him; they just have to get there.

It didn't matter to her that she was now even more a fugitive of the law, gunshots and bullets coming from behind and whizzing past her head. She was set on finding her absentee father Hiroshi and seeing this whole however many month journey come to the end. She wanted to see Michiko finally get her wish granted, to see that smile she grew to love again, the real light come back into her eyes. So, she ran like she was given wings from the god she prayed to so often and without belief in the Yamada household. She ran like there were gusts of wind in those wings, like her very existence depended on it. He was right there; they just had a few more feet to run.

And when they finally got to him, their many lawless and dirty motel living months coming to an end, she felt more satisfaction than she knew possible. It was like… the sky opened and showered her with gold and diamonds and pearls that Michiko wouldn't take her from her to wear with some garish outfit that probably doesn't count as an outfit. And that's why it was all the more confusing when Michiko had the heart – the _gall_ – to make the decision to let him go again. To let her go.

When she saw that long hair flowing in the wind as she rode that motorcycle out of her life, just like how she came _in_ to it, that's when Hatchin knew Michiko Malandro was crazy. She was as crazy as the Yamada family was cruel. As crazy as Atsuko Jackson was with destroying her _entire police career_ with letting Michiko go so many times. As crazy as that Satoshi guy was fighting all those people Shinsuke sent after him.

And yet, she knew she was just as crazy as her, just itching for another journey to come calling.

 _How far will we travel this time, Michiko?_


End file.
